ABA leader states case for lawyers.

• Author: Schwab, Robert
• Position: On colorado - American Bar Association - Editorial

ROBERT J. GREY JR. IS VERY diplomatic. He has to be. He is the elected president of the American Bar Association, and he, like the rest of us, saw George W. Bush get re-elected president by a substantial majority of the national vote.

So Grey realizes the political strength that the president brings to a heated issue stirred during the re-election campaign: a complaint from business that trial lawyers are the root cause of nearly every evil on the planet ... no, specifically, the continuous rise of health-care costs and higher employer-borne health-insurance premiums.

Grey, who was in Denver early in November to speak at a dinner to raise money for the Colorado Judicial Institute's Judicial Education Preservation Fund, points out that the ABA is a larger organization than just trial lawyers, although trial lawyers are certainly included.

But he also says that more than 50 percent of verdicts rendered by American courts are defendant verdicts, and so "it's not as if this is lopsided in favor of plaintiff actions.

"Everybody likes their lawyer when they are on the side of bringing an action on their behalf," said Grey. "That includes corporations who also bring actions against other corporations or against government, or against individuals who violate non-compete contracts, for instance," he told me during an interview.

Perhaps a little more explanation is needed to fully understand Grey's point and mine.

Political candidates, including unsuccessful Senate candidate Pete Coors, have adopted the complaints of some businesspeople (Coors among them) that everyone from consumers to employees to terrorists increase the costs of doing business in the United States because they take business disputes to court. There, the argument goes, trial lawyers try hard to get huge, financially punishing verdicts or settlements for their clients, which does no business any good.

What Grey is saying is this: Hold on, first realize most defendants--the person or company being sued--win more often than plaintiffs, the person or company filing the lawsuit.

Besides that, Grey says, it's easy for the losers of such business disputes to whine publicly and loudly--usually creating headlines in a press that is then vilified by business for trumpeting the verdict--especially if a jury verdict or a judge's verdict is big and painful for the...